giants with the agency had a sister relationship with other agencies amazing agency such as the asian women shelter, cameron house and arica. in this fight against domestic violence, what is legal work? what is a restraining order out a piece of paper if there is no shelter or safe place? such as the ones that -- provide for the survivors. but is a -- together these agencies created in 2001, a collaborative as of october 2013 we have expanded the collaborative to consist of legal outreach, asian women shelter, arica and --

to reflect the diversity of the needs of our clients. our mission remains true. to see the not as victims but to talk about what resilience and courage mean. not only for women and children, people of all genders. people often forget the elderly. people over 25 countries and a multitude of industries. basically the industry that you can be forced to work in, trafficking and forced labor them your current. millions of people are trafficked worldwide. needs to

make the top of our policymakers. political instability and other issues increase vulnerability to trafficking and other types of violent experiences. violence is interconnected. we cannot ignore the dynamics we talk about . being aware of anti- human trafficking efforts and anti-domestic violence, and sexual assault, other abuse concerns that affect our society and community. as of january first, 1863, president lincoln declared that the emancipation proclamation would take effect that they. here we are about 150 some years later we still see slavery in the form of trafficking and forced labor in our community. in the fight the focus is often on education and awareness but it's not enough. we need direct services. we need to raise our voices and bush congress and let them know that the united states

must recommit to putting resources to ending trafficking. and comprehensive immigration reform. and statewide. we should continue to fight for legislation like the domestic worker to live rights of other things that promote marginalization of our clients. at the end of the day and work with survivors we need to understand and listen and let them know that the work goes on. i want to thank -- a personal mentor. she has really been a mentor; she challenges us and says we are not powerless. what about ...? that is the question we should always ask ourselves. thank you. (applause)

>> thank you again to mayor ed lee who has to leave and catch a plane. thank you. (applause) now i would like to call on supervisor carmen chu who has been fantastic and is been really outspoken; she has spoken so often and so well. it is a pleasure to have you here. >> supervisor chu: i want to thank nancy, and the department, and the commission. i want to recognize my colleague amelia cohen a strong supporter. i want to thank and congratulate the awardees and thank you for the work that you do to bring awareness and continue to fight and i want to thank the department heads who are here, annemarie conroy who is here.

i'm glad that you're here because we will need all of your help to continue this effort. we talk about human trafficking and human trafficking awareness month which begins january eleventh, it's not about this month only. it's the opportunity for us to highlight the issue but it really is something that we ought to be working on all the time when we have the budget before us. we ought to be thinking about it when we have legislation before us, as department heads and you talk about coordination, we ought to be thinking about it. i want to thank you all for being here and i hope that you bring with you sort of a renewed dedication to deal with this issue. is something that we don't need to forget about. it is often hidden. today i want to congratulate everybody. i also want to introduce our speaker that you will be hearing from today who has an amazing story to tell. i had the opportunity to speak you little with minjang (sounds like) earlier.

she has served as an inspiration earlier for us all. the healing she wants to bring not only for her own experiences but for many other individuals who may have been human trafficked or had other traumas. it is an inspiration to see someone persevere through such a difficult ordeal and bring a strong voice and transform our own life into something that helps others. and so i am pleased and honored to be able to introduce to you all minjeng (sounds like) (applause) >> thanks everyone. i am a survivor.

it's an interesting way to be introduced to the crowd. it's usually a secret that you only tell your close friends. a brief history. typical story. my traffickers were my parents, severely abused at home, sold for sex and the city and throughout the south bay. the real secret i'm here to tell you is that i have an extreme, hidden desire to be a dancer. the thing i love about dancers is that they seem so graceful and in their body. and curious about what their bodies are doing and flaunt with the music they feel fluid.

there's something about that grace that i aspire to. be there is one thing that i can tell you about human trafficking and being sold in being abused as a child, the sense of fluidity and grace i had to fight for. also the sense of safety in my own body. you might hear a little shaking in my voice, physically shaking, not because there is danger to my life now and yet that history of almost 21 years of enslavement still lives with me. i am here today. this is part of my training to be a dancer. i will not bust out any moves. i am working to be fluid in my body. i ask you think about this issue did not just think about having severed so many sexual assaults and rapes and molested by my parents and treated as

a slave. think about the psychological change and the emotional poverty i had to face. i would like to share a quote, mark lagon, the head of the state department trafficking office. trafficking as a crime and human dignity. i look up the definition of dignity, once about worthiness and one about self-respect. human trafficking is a crime that robs people of their human dignity. is the traffickers dignity question? why is my dignity question? one of the definitions of dignity is self-respect. that is what was stolen from me, not my self-respect but my

sense of self-respect. i stand before you and up until when i started speaking i questioned why i am here. why do i get to speak. my fellow survivors who cannot speak english. why not the young man or boy because he was not a girl being raped? why not somebody who has tattoos and did not get a college education? because of those why's i'm here. i can give them voice. those people, my friends, the survivor friends of those who did not survive, there is an equal amount of self-respect you give me today. that is why i am here. to ask as we move to end slavery that we look within our own lives and don't see traffickers has horrible people out there.

what about the 15-year-old boy who was recruited by his father to become a trafficker? he himself was a victim. or what about people in severe poverty who have no other opportunity? the only thing they can do is sell another human being. this is a complex issue. we have the roots of violence within us. i see that within myself and i root them out within myself. i ask you to do that in your own lives. how are we loving our children? how are we loving our partners? how are we loving the strangest on the street. equally as important as passing the -- act which we need to do. equally important having press conferences, reading stories, going on the news. it's how you treat everyone in your day-to-day life. thank you. (applause) (applause)

>> wow. thank you so much. that takes so much courage. to be that voice. i don't know. i know what it is to tell the story of survival. and the people who you can reach with that it's untold amounts of people. you would be surprised how many would be affected by what you have to say and i'm glad that you brought up boys. i think that they are not always thought of as victims. in trafficking or in many other things but they are. anyway, i just thank you all for coming. this was wonderful that you

were here. i think to be able -- oh, one more. come here. >> my name is marilyn -- president of the friends of the san francisco commission on the status of women. this was awesome. thank you for inviting me. what comes to mind is a collaboration, 20 agencies and all of you here taking time off on a wor day to honor our keynote speaker. the quote that i had, what margaret meade said, a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.

you all are doing that. and a half of the friends of the san francisco commission on the status of women, we are the group -- your friends that will help raise money to continue your work, that is why i'm here. i also wanted to say that trafficking involves exploitation in many forms. i have seen in my own community, sometimes it comes in many forms. bondage. professional women and men are in deep debt bondage because they have to pay the traffickers of those who recruit them to their jobs. there was a philippine american, the first to serve in washington state legislature; among her many accomplish things as passage of the first -- washington with the first a donation to make human trafficking illegal,

and you are containing her work. she authored the joint legislative oversight committee on trade policy. human trafficking touches every corner of the globe, especially the united states, especially san francisco.it is the second largest and fastest-growing crime in the world. 9,000,000,000 to 30 billion annually. this is something we need to be more vigilant. we need to look beneath the surface, look around us. this action, human trafficking could be happening in our neighborhood, our workplace. be vigilant. also understand what this complex issue is about because this is about slavery, modern slavery.

this is about stealing the lives of young women and men. i applaud all of you for being here, and the young women who took the time to really create a phase of what human trafficking is. i love your quote. not be a bystander. be an outstander. (applause) i have an announcement. take the posters. to your workplace, to your home. the poster will be displayed at the department of the status of women. there are so many workshops and events during this month. please tell your friends and family. learn more about this complex issue. we have to and violence. thank you all. (applause)

>> good morning everyone i am closing the event. i will say that i want to thank everyone. i want to highlight the poster submissions presented here. please look at the fine detail, the energy and time that the young people committed to make sure we created of the awareness of human trafficking. i want to highlight that there is a calendar of events. if any of you would like to continue to be involved i encourage you to either yourself be involved or pass out the information. today there will be a human trafficking 101 session that we encourage you to attend so we understand this issue in hybrids at seven cisco. thank you to the chief of police, the chief of probation,

carmen chu, and we appreciate everyone being here including the district attorney's office for being part of this cause. thank you. (applause)

>> good morning everyone. it's a great time of the year to unveil-- happy new year actually. my name is claudine cheng. i'm speaking as a past president of oca, organization of chinese americans. every year is special; this year is specifically more special because historically the first year honoring chinese heritage was in 1993,

this is the twentieth year anniversary of that; we are proud and happy that the happy new year series is continuing -- by the united states postal service. oca is a national organization 20 years ago urge the postal service to issue a series of stamps to honor the contributions of chinese americans and we have the support of many local organizations, the chinese chamber of commerce, the chinese consolidated benevolent associations and many other national organizations and national leaders that joined asking the post office to consider doing that. we see the stamp as an important part of the american cultural heritage; chinese-americans are a big part of it.

this is a special year, our twentieth year. i would like to introduce our mayor, ed lee, this is his press conference. mayor lee has been to many, many if not all of the -- in san francisco. in as many capacities as a public official in san francisco. mayor lee? >> thank you caludine for your work. from the first time when you were in dc getting us excited about our national stamp; really our national culture could be reflected for everybody in america. this is a wonderful opportunity yet again and i know this is the sixth stamp? sixth in the second series. i'm glad to be joined the board president david chiu, our new

supervisor norman yee district 7, and rod sengera postmaster general for the san francisco bay area. i see the wonderful beautiful designs that ken mack has for our stamp,a reflection of our cultural heritage. i want to thank the representatives of chinese companies and many others witnessing this to unveil this again. we are getting ready for the new year. as people know we are finishing up on what i think is one of the most exciting years that we have had with the year of the dragon. you know as well as i do that so many things happened, somewhat miraculously whether the world series or on our way

to perhaps a super bowl, and even the economic recovery. i kind of thing from our own culture that it had something to do with the alignment of some great fantastic events that we could not control but that came together. and for welcoming in this new year we call it the year of the serpent but some of us will refer to as as a year of the many dragon. of course i want to recognize carmen chu hao district 4 supervisor as well; she has been a strong leader helping us promote the new year's as well of course taking care of her district, working as a wonderful supervisor. i am excited about this new year too because it has an opportunity to unveil many of our cultural

aspirations in the city of san francisco. it has been 160 years, and we know our history well. my ascension to this office has been one of those things that people still consider me pretty special so much special not because of me but because of our community. this tab will have international status. gobs of people will want to have it, reflective of not only our history but if i go to washington dc tomorrow we will have an opportunity to talk with the rest of the mayors across the country is to how to celebrate new year's. this would be another example. want to congratulate again claudine and the whole team, postmaster general, is leadership is always been important.

and the public service that she does not only in delivering the mail and postal service but reflective of the stamp and the u.s. postal service office that we get this opportunity to have a national platform on which our culture affinities can be displayed. happy new year. (chinese) thank you mayor lee. every year the united states postal service in washington dc receives many applications for subject matter to be reflected on a postal stamp. we really want to thank the poster service committee for selecting every year for the happy new year stamp, or the lunar year thing, to be part of the commemorative stamp program. with us today is seven cisco postmaster rog cingara (sounds

like). >> thank you for that kind introduction. i want to thank you for being with us today and for your support of the united states postal service. i know you have important business in washington to attend to. something about an inauguration. i really appreciate your taking the time out here today and inviting us us to city hall and being part of the celebration. thank you claudine. as always your support and your assistance have been instrumental and it is very much appreciated. thank very much. and thank you all for joining us here today. this is an auspicious ceremony in this beautiful city of san francisco where for the second year in a row now we have been the official first day of issue city for the lunar new year stamp. i might also add that for out of the six stamps in the series

san francisco has been chosen three times to be the official city. we must be doing something right in san francisco. i am honored to represent the postal service. today is an exciting service. we are proud to celebrate our special time with our friends and the asian community. appreciate the beauty of the stamps for them to use in the new year greetings to families and friends and we capture that beauty this year into celebrating the lunar year stamp. the stamp features the firecrackers that scare off evil spirits and renew hope for the future. the staff is available today at all post offices to help you

prepare for the two-year mailings,, greeting cards , party invitations and gifts. we don't have stats available-for-sale at city hall but we do at this table here. we can put the date of issue postmark on them. we have cancellations at lincoln station and also add chinatown for the next 60 days. we are providing the cancellations of those two stations. on behalf of the united states postal service i will like to invite mayor lee and our guests to unveil and dedicate the 2013 lunar new year stamp, year of the snake (chinese). >> i would like to invite representatives from oca and the chinese benevolent association to join us.

(applause)